Alan Singley Digs Bicycles, Girls and “Le Rain”
Oh man, that Alan Singley. It’s been three years since Singley and his band, Pants Machine, released a record, and I can only imagine how many bike rides he’s been on since then. Set to drop in two weeks on Bladen Country Records, Feelin’ Citrus is a super fun, sunny blast of uptempo songs, jaunty pianos and horn arrangements—almost like Burt Bacharach covering a set of Pavement b-sides. The first single is “Le Rain,” and we’re happy to share it with you today. Here’s what Singley says about the song:
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I was riding my bike in the rain looking for a job and through a fake French accent I just started singing the hook off the top of my head. Its a bike-love song, written in a gritty Portland basement, fueled by a forty.
Yep, that’s totally it! With any luck I can convince him to tape a “behind the scenes” commentary where he talks about the album while smoking a cigar and talking to the camera. A boy can dream, right?
Links:
Alan Singley & Pants MachineSpace
Bladen Country Records
Photo by Stephanie Brachman
Related posts:
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- Alan Singley Has A Confession Wow, it
- CD Reviews: Alan Singley & Pants Machine, Leviethan Alan Sing
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Kari
says:Manheimer, you weanie. Can’t post the truth?
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 12:03 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:i said, wow, artist finds muse in 80% of all Portland cliches: “a fake French accent, riding a bike, the rain, a gritty basement, a forty.” That kind of innovation’s really gonna shake this city up. Next up: a beard-ballad fueled by Stumptown coffee, vegan scones, pugs and V-neck shirts. Kick out the jams, Alan Singley! Let’s wait another three years before you give us more music, ok? kisses”
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 1:10 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkMichael Mannheimer
(post author) says:Kari,
While I love that LocalCut is getting so many comments—always a good thing, in my book—I’m still a little bemused as to why you feel the need to “poop” on just about everything we put up here. Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but at some point it’s like you’re just saying shit to say it. A lot of your comments are mean and a little low, and if you really want to mock someone like Alan, maybe offer some constructive criticism instead of name-calling? I’m glad to have a little dialogue on this site, I just wish it wasn’t so mean spirited. Also, you spelled my name wrong.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 1:22 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Double N Mannheim Steamroller: point well taken. Constructive criticism instead of name calling. Seriously good advice (Kharmically too, if you’re into that hippy crap). It’s precisely what i used to tell the jocks at my eastern Oregon high school when they called me a “porker punker” who couldn’t get date “with a crate of rotten apples.” How about telling me how to fix the problem? Or how to lose weight? Or what men like, right? Wrong: i beat the crap out of those losers then called them names when they were down. That’s how i used to roll. i’m trying to fix that, so let’s make LocalCut the place for my rebirth. i will no longer be “mean-spirited” and “low,” even though i believe your hyper sensitivity and inter-office politics is receiving my honest social commentary and cultural criticism as something mean. (ie: you’re a whimp, don’t like hurting peoples’ feelings and need to grow a pair. See? That wasn’t mean, that was honest. But i’ll cut it out because you seem nice and you asked me to.)
Also: i’m not just “saying shit to say it.” i have many other things to do, like stocking these Tampax at Freddies after lunch break, then racing over to dogsit some yuppie’s 3 puggles in a house in Ladd’s Addition for barely enough money to cover the bus fare that got me there. But see, i enjoy this — this art stuff — and since i have strong, awesome opinions and a sexy smart brain that is the envy of nations, i choose to write on your blog. This is where some of the city’s best stuff is being noted, and i love it. See? i said love! i like happy stuff too, Steamroller. i didn’t poop on tons of posts here, so don’t go against your journalistic integrity with generalizations like i “poop on everything” you put up here. that’s just not true. proof: the absence of of my comments on countless blog posts.
Still, glad you’re thankfull for all the hot intellectual action i’m providing LocalCut. i won’t say you owe me, but when you lay your little Mannheimer head down on your pillow at night, you know that you do. Hope your internship is going well and that it won’t end one day with you being dumped jobless on the street to hand out Street Roots or do those annoying save-the-babies surveys while angrilly telling strangers, “I used to write for the Willy Week! What happened?” How am i doing so far? i can do better. kisses.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 1:40 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkYour Pop
says:“Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but at some point it’s like you’re just saying shit to say it.”
The irony, of course, is that that’s how you make your living.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 1:59 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkNick
says:Kari,
Negativity is not productive.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 2:06 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinktravis
says:i think honest criticism is great, but just shitting on people’s art with out explanation is really elitist and exactly the type of thing that almost everyone i’ve ever met is talking about when they say they hate the scene or hipsters or poseurs ect….
also, while i like to see what is getting talked about in local music, i really don’t think local cut (or any local blog) is at the center of the portland music culture or the last word on anything!
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 2:36 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Kari responded: Nick, yes it is. 100% positive feedback doesn’t tell you what you’re doing wrong and help you fix the problem or improve, does it smart guy? i guess you went to a Montessori school where the teachers just sang Kumbaya all morning and told you how precious you were and how your farts smelled like roses. Now look at you: your sensitive ears can’t handle “bad stuff,” and no one can do any wrong but the naysayers. Maybe we should just lie and say, “Hey buddy, you should really quit your high-paying job and take that hyena screech you call singing on the road, because it’s a gift.” Or, “Hey, great work at the client meeting today. We didn’t lose that account because you rambled on and on and couldn’t articulate the nature of our business clearly, we lost it because the gods intervened and frowned upon us. Not your fault.”
Oh my god, (OMG!) so sorry! i’m being negative and name-calling. Here, i’ll be constructive: Nick, please consider that there might be a tangible benefit to hearing both positive and negative comments when discussing the merits and weakness of one’s art. Positive shows us what’s working, the negative shows us what is not. Your comment reads like a bumpersticker they’d sell on NW 23rd along the “Keep Portland Weird” ones: an oversimplifaction of a complex phenom, which is total hippytown, dude.
Can’t wait till you’re back posting on your blog, btw. Really holding my breath, but not long enough to die so don’t get too excited. kisses.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 2:38 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkYour Pop
says:“i think honest criticism is great, but just shitting on people’s art with out explanation is really elitist and exactly the type of thing that almost everyone i’ve ever met is talking about when they say they hate the scene or hipsters or poseurs ect….”
Trying to position yourself as somebody who gets to define “art” is pretty elitist, don’t you think?
Let me simplify: every shitty pop song/band does not qualify as “art”. it may qualify as “effort”, but “art” isn’t something you (or I) get to define for others.
Even simpler: being high-minded about someone else’s so-called high-mindedness is ironic, too.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 2:49 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:You’re right Travis. No blog, LocalCut included, is the last word on Portland music culture. i am. i am the voice of the voiceless masses. Please, no need to polish my leather Dom boots in deference to my cognitive power, but do let me paddle your cute porcelain behind until that fact seep into the red spots. People pay big money for that kind of treatment in various basements around town. For you, i give it for free.
Can’t call that elitist, only philanthropic, proletarian. And now on, i shall speak only of specifics, no name calling, no “meanness.”
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 2:50 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkCasey Jarman
says:This is just like the old days! Except I’m not the one going on and on! Makes me wanna pour my heart out sometime. I could go on and on about Pendleton Rock Camp. Maybe I will, eventually. Shoulda brought a video camera.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 3:06 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:i miss you Casey. We had a good thing going on.
And Pop: i love your line abuot “effort” vs “art” so much that i’m going to stell it, but give you credit. Just spot on. Even though you’re clearly someone else’s pop, will you be my daddy too? i’ve been bad…
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 3:12 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkNick
says:can we hold a town hall at the willamette week office about this? i can get the anti-healthcare people to show up. it will be one hell of a spectacle!
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 3:16 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Absolutely Nick. What time should i be there? Do you want me to bring bacon or another flavor of Voodoo donut for you?
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 3:27 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKendra
says:I’m totally staying late for this!
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 3:32 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkNick
says:ODB.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 3:36 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkYour Pop
says:Those Voodoo Donuts are art.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 3:55 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Nick: “Ol’ Dirty Bastard?” Or “our daily bread?”
Pop, you know that’s the truth. Preach.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 3:59 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkNick
says:Alan Watts on Nothingness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLrMVous0Ac
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 4:16 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Hasil Adkins “Shake That Thing”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tj4mxSOD1s&feature=related
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 4:33 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkScott
says:Personally I’m looking forward to the orchestration Mr. Singley was reportedly working on for some new R&B tracks with Doubledutch. That stuff is going to be a rad direction for him!
Sorry, I know that was off topic…now back to the Kari show!
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 4:35 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Hey Scott, how dare you comment on the actual content of this article.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 5:03 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkMandingo Fandango, Esq.
says:Apparently, Alan Singley also digs bands like Underpants Machine.
Look it up. Hipsters.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 5:13 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkAaron Mesh
says:Kari,
Are you single?
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 5:41 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Baby, like James Brown said after his release from prison for domestic abuse: “I’m single and I wanna mingle.”
Are you? And which dirty bathroom in Old Town are we meeting at and when?
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 5:55 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkdevin
says:christ, i just wanted to shoutout alan and say great song. this shit got nuts.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 6:03 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:sorry you can’t handle the pressure, devin. welcome to the real world.
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 7:53 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkAaron Mesh
says:I’m available as well! But if we meet in a dirty Old Town bathroom, I’m just going to be reliving bad Pants Machine memories. How about dinner?
Posted @ August 12th, 2009 at 8:37 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Sure Aaron, your choice and you’re paying. But unfortunate news flash: you couldn’t handle me. You think you could, but you’re not equipped. It’s a rare breed that can saddle this mama. Still think you can do the dirty work, Mr. Mesh? (and what kind of last name is that, besides fake?)
Posted @ August 13th, 2009 at 10:59 am (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkDylan
says:first
Posted @ August 15th, 2009 at 11:47 am (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Dylan, let me finish that sentence for you: “first time I, Dylan, ever rode a fixie, I was listening to the song ‘Summerland.’” Is that what you meant? Alan Singley wrote his song with you in mind. 40-ounce power!
Posted @ August 15th, 2009 at 1:57 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkAaron Mesh
says:Kari,
I’m like a horse whisperer, but for unbroken ladyfolk. And of course I’m paying. I’m from Tennessee. That’s how we do.
The last name is Jewish, thank you very much. Chopped on Ellis Island. I have the birth certificate.
Posted @ August 15th, 2009 at 5:24 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:i like Southern men. Normally i like dressing them in diapers and degrading them in my basement like the sissies they are, but you seem different. i mean it when i say i like your style and will be nice and polite to you. Thank you for asking me out.
Alright Aaron, Jewish Aaron, here’s how we do this: you meet me in the north Park Blocks next Saturday at 2:22pm. i’ll be on the bench on the west side of the playground, reading a book. Don’t come right up to me. Stand opposite the playground and signal with your hands by moving your palm over your stomach in a clockwise circle, like you would if you were hungry. i’ll be watching, and if you do it right, and if the parents don’t think you’re some pervert hungry for baby bottom, and you’re not some hideous oinker with serious facial deformities and/or a beard and ridiculous indie rock clothing, i will then walk west toward Fuller’s to meet you at one of the Formica counters, and we can chat over something deadly and greezy about whether you think your horse whisperer skills mean you have a history of trying to save broken women and how hot you are for me but can’t have me that easily. You’re from Tennesse, i’ll assume you like hash house food (Waffle House anyone?). Sound kosher? kisses.
Posted @ August 15th, 2009 at 6:24 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkAaron Mesh
says:It almost certainly isn’t kosher, but I’ve never followed the rabbis’ instructions, so why start now? Also, I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed Waffle House, and your dining tastes give me reason to think this will be a worthwhile hour. 2:22 pm it is. But I should warn you: I don’t do salvation.
Posted @ August 17th, 2009 at 3:34 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:i’m not sure what you mean by “salvation” Jewish Aaron, but i won’t be wearing underwear. See you and any LocalCuts readers who want my autograph and an insult in person at 2:22.
Posted @ August 17th, 2009 at 5:17 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkDylan
says:plz stop, u r 2 witty
Posted @ August 18th, 2009 at 10:22 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkDylan
says:Whu’s Ohn first
Posted @ August 20th, 2009 at 1:20 am (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkBill Paxton
says:Mandingo… is you be a sassy young thang? tryna get them stickey fingas?
Posted @ August 20th, 2009 at 1:24 am (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkAaron Mesh
says:Kari,
I have a horrible feeling that I misread the instructions. I showed up. I gave the signal. You walked away. You were going to Fuller’s, weren’t you? Shit.
I just totally wasted your time. You were cute, too. If that was you.
Posted @ August 22nd, 2009 at 4:40 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkAaron Mesh
says:It was such a simple plan, too. Entirely bollocked by my inability to parse basic instructions. Dammit. I’m sorry.
Posted @ August 22nd, 2009 at 4:51 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Dearest Aaron, you never showed, liar. Maybe the person you said who was cute was a 10-year-old on the swingset you mistook for my cellulite sexiness? i liked your “Triumph Of The Reel” piece, though — kinda got me hot. Guess you’ll never know how hot seeing as you’re the type who stands up the ladies. And i thought you’d be more the chubby chasin’ type. Goodbye, heartbreaker. No kisses for you.
Posted @ August 22nd, 2009 at 7:18 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkAaron Mesh
says:Oh, for pity’s sake, Kari. I was there at 2:22. I stood around rubbing my shirt for a good 10 minutes. I tried standing in different locations. I was photographed by playground mothers that I think took me for a paedo. The only book reader I saw was a redhead with a bicycle. She left. I’ve been kicking myself since, thinking I was supposed to follow her. But I take it that wasn’t you? If it wasn’t, I’m inclined to believe YOU never showed. Unless you are a small Latino man.
Another beautiful friendship lost.
Posted @ August 22nd, 2009 at 7:43 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkAaron Mesh
says:Though I must say that the more I look at it, the better this thread gets. High fives all round.
Posted @ August 22nd, 2009 at 8:53 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Oh, so you were the one in the Ed Hardy gear? Sorry to hear that. That’s stuff trash. Have you heard that rap song “Fuck Ed Hardy?” It goes: “Got my glitter tiger jacket, motherfucker I’m a faggot. I’m an Ed Hardy fan aka I am a maggot. I roll with douchey bitches. I roll with douchy crews.” etc. And it’s “Latina.” They get pissed about that.
If you ditched the glitter gear maybe we’ll reschedule.
Posted @ August 23rd, 2009 at 11:07 am (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkJon Ragel
says:TEASE
Posted @ August 23rd, 2009 at 11:38 am (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Tease in hip hop lingo = step to this
Posted @ August 23rd, 2009 at 1:31 pm (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkAlt Bro
says:still got high
Posted @ August 24th, 2009 at 2:45 am (August 11th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalink